Secondary containment systems are enclosures designed to create a perimeter around liquid storage tanks and the like as a safety mechanism to sequester liquid in the event of a spill and prevent contamination of the surrounding environment. These systems generally consist of a system of walls (often formed of corrugated metal plate) that are situated around the storage tanks and bolted together. The systems also commonly include support structures such as posts and/or anchor mechanisms that penetrate into the underlying ground to secure the positioning of the walls.
The assembly processes for many existing secondary containment systems are extremely labor intensive. For example, a foundation must often be established with holes excavated to facilitate the secure placement of the support structures into the surrounding earth. Then, to secure the wall pieces to the support structures and/or to each other, a large number of bolts are generally used, each of which must be painstakingly tightened while maintaining alignment of prefabricated holes in the pieces to be joined. Often, pairs of bolts are placed at each corrugation along a joint between two corrugated wall members, which can result in the use of twenty or more bolts at each connection point. Consequently, the existing secondary containment systems may require hundreds or thousands of bolts.
Advancements in manufacturability, cost and effectiveness of secondary containment systems continue to be sought.